


Electric Feel

by Anonymous



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Young Avengers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-06
Updated: 2015-01-06
Packaged: 2018-03-06 08:50:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3128498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tommy moves so much quicker than everyone else that he sometimes misses the most obvious things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Electric Feel

**Author's Note:**

  * For [crumplelush](https://archiveofourown.org/users/crumplelush/gifts).



> A/N: So this was a pinch hit, which means it was unfortunately a little slim, but I hope you enjoy it anyway! AU after Vol.3 Mic Drop at the Edge of the Universe, Issue #15: Resolution Part Two. Warning for emotionally damaged Tommy (because that boy has issues) and still-a-little-too-oblivious-to-other's-feelings Noh-Varr. Brotherly bonding, a cameo from the Hawkeyes. + I made [ a playlist](http://8tracks.com/elizuuso/electric-feel) of what I was listening to while I wrote to go with the fic!  
>  _ **Prompt:** Tommy struggles with his attraction to Noh-Varr. Noh-Varr tries to be patient, but doesn't understand what the problem is._  
>  For the [Young Avengers Fic Exchange](http://youngavengersficexchange.tumblr.com)

It’s probably more than a little odd, Tommy thinks, for him to end up hanging out with Noh-Varr of all people as much as he does, but then again Tommy is a pretty odd guy by most standards.

 

There’s obviously a certain level of camaraderie expected of them given that they’re teammates and all, but frankly, when Noh-Varr came around he’d been carrying a torch for Kate for more than a little while and it had taken most of his apparent kidnapping and then some for him to let go of it. On his bad days he’s still not entirely sure that he has. The end result had been a pretty immediate dislike for the guy. Despite what everyone assumes, Tommy does try to be mature about most things, he just has a habit of being quick-tempered and not too great at thinking through his decisions before they’re made. Besides, in his defense, it’s not so easy to warm up to the guy who was with the girl you’ve been chasing after for years. So maybe he’d fixated in on Noh-Varr a little more than was the norm for a new teammate once he’d actually met him, and maybe he should be forgiven for being a little slow up the uptake when the exact nature of his fixation changed.

 

*

 

“So, what are you two, like, bffs now?” Kate asked with a small, surprised smirk on her face. She’d run into the two of them when she and Clint headed out to stop an in-progress bank robbery downtown at the same time Noh-Varr and Tommy had been thinking it might be fun to check out the situation themselves. It turned out to be a little pathetic, Clint was taking care of things on his own, Noh-Varr off in search of something else to occupy them (though Tommy suspected actually trying to avoid Kate), and they’d apparently stayed to catch up.

“Kate,” Said Tommy pointedly, “He has a spaceship. A SPACESHIP. Are you really going to judge me when you’re the one who dated him? You can’t tell me the spaceship didn’t have at least a little bit to do it with, I won’t blame you if it did.” Kate just laughed and rolled her eyes.

“That’s not exactly what I meant, but it’s good to know you’re here for all the right reasons.”

“Priorities.” Tommy nodded and Kate scoffed.

“But really,” Kate continued “You guys are spending a lot of time together lately.” It was obvious she was getting at something but he really wasn’t sure what the point was.

“Yes?” She stared at him for a long moment somewhat sardonically and he stared back, uncomprehending of what she was trying to tell him until there was a loud crash followed by a string of muffled curses down the block. Kate sighed and her stance deflated.

“That’ll be Clint.” Tommy laughed. “I’d better go rescue him from himself before he does any more permanent damage.” She turned and started jogging down towards the noise. “I’d better be the first to hear the happy news!” She called back over her shoulder, grinning in an altogether unsettling way.

“Sure thing!” He called back, still without a clue as to what she was referring.

 

*

 

“So, find anything exciting when you decided to run away earlier?” Tommy teased once they were back on Noh-Varr’s ship, both flung across the bed in his room, listening to music. Noh-Varr gave him a strange look.

“I did not run away, I just didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“What?” Tommy sat up quickly. “Er, why would I be uncomfortable with you being around Kate? I mean, I know I was a bit uncool for a little while there but I’m over it, man, over Kate. You do what you want, though I gotta’ warn you, I don’t think she’s exactly lookin’ for a date right now. But best of luck if you want to go there.” He shrugged. Though he did get an uncomfortable twisting feeling somewhere in his gut at the thought of Noh-Varr going off to try and win her back again, he mostly managed to push it down. It was kind of unexpected, really, he hadn’t thought about Kate as more than a friend in a while now, and he wouldn’t have thought the idea of her with someone else would bother him anymore at this point. It was weird. Noh-Varr was leveling him with a somewhat lost look. “You okay?”

“You think I still wish to be with Kate?” Noh-Varr asked slowly.

“Well, I mean, yeah. I assumed.”

“Tommy Shepherd of Earth, I assure you I have absolutely no remaining desire to be with Kate Bishop.” Staring into Tommy’s eyes has he spoke, a strange urgency in his tone.

“Uhhhhm.” Tommy felt oddly breathless, his heart rushed in his ears and his skin had started to itch with the need to move. “Right!” He leapt up off the bed, “Great. Cool, that’s really good to hear. I guess. I think? We should get out, find something to do, right?” Noh-Varr had an oddly stricken look on his face and Tommy felt a pang of guilt and grabbed Noh-Varr without much thought, yanking him up so they’d stumbled together.

“Come on.” He said, grinning and tugging at Noh-Varr’s hand, already pulling them backwards out the door. “Let’s go find some fun!” He urged. A little of the sadness seemed to seep from Noh-Varr and he’d smiled back.

“As you wish, Tommy Shepherd.”

 

*

 

When they first started hanging out, it just made sense.

 

Kate was off doing her Hawkeye thing with Clint, dedicated to finding her own independence and being a full-time badass. Not to mention keeping Clint relatively out of harm’s way, something he suspected took a hell of a lot of doing. Either way, she’d made it clear, the thing between them, whatever it was, wasn’t going anywhere any time soon. Not that he’d particularly expected it to by that point.

 

Billy and Teddy were busy being Billy and Teddy. Even when they were doing something interesting there was only so much star-crossed puppy-love one could bear witness to before losing it. Besides, the possibility of being sucked into Kaplan Family Bonding Time was an ever terrifying one.

 

America was...kicking holes in dimensions, or something. He really didn’t know much about her, but from what he’d caught she was looking for Loki. He didn’t know the guy but no one seemed to trust him much further than they could throw him, and ignoring the fact that the majority of them had superpowers that was saying a lot. She wasn’t buying his good-natured new self and planned on tracking him down.

 

David, he actually spent quite a bit of time with. Unfortunately, the way things worked for him Tommy still had a lot more time on his hands than the rest of them. David was a surprisingly interesting person to be around for Tommy, but still a little too worried about being good for Tommy’s tastes. He could see where the guy was coming from, though, his reformed ‘terrorist’ status didn’t leave much wiggle room for misbehaving, after-all.

 

So really, who else was there? Besides, when he did the math it wasn’t too surprising that they got along. Noh-Varr was alien and new and with an entirely different and somewhat loose set of morals and Tommy was full of just about bottomless curiosity and just a little bit of a taste for chaos. After all, when life was working at the pace everyone else would deem comfortable it was agonisingly slow for Tommy. So who better to spend his time with than the flashy, planet-hopping, alien, DJ guy who’d ended up joining their rag-tag bunch of young wannabee (and sometimes surprisingly successful) heroes.

 

So, he’d gone looking for him.

 

*

 

“Hey man!” was shouted straight into Noh-Varr’s ear, a voice trying to be heard over the volume of the music pumping out through the club’s sound-system. He looked up with a smile and was greeted by an unexpected but not unwelcome sight.

“Hello, Tommy Shepherd!” Tommy’s grin widened a little and there was something very pleasant about his mouth when he did. It was something he hadn’t taken the time to notice in the past but it was difficult to look away now. “What brings you here?”

“You, actually!” Tommy shouted and Noh-Varr was inordinately pleased to hear it. “I heard you DJ here a lot, so I thought ‘hey, why not?!’ right?” Noh-Varr laughed.

“Why not indeed. If you give me a moment I’ll set up a queue and we can get a booth.” He shouted back, at that Tommy just laughed.

“We don’t need a booth, no one comes to a club to talk! I came to dance, didn’t you?” Noh-Varr grinned and turned back to his computer, putting together the best songs he could think of for the atmosphere of the night out and whatever he thought Tommy might like. He had to admit he didn’t know too much about the other young-man, but he was usually a pretty good judge of what someone might like to listen to.

 

Once he finished he turned and followed Tommy on to the dance floor. Tommy seeking him out had been unexpected but he was pleased that he had. He was intriguing, there was something captivating about his presence, and much like himself the other man seemed to have trouble finding somewhere to belong. But for now he hoped they could both find some contentment in the moment and their shared presence.

 

Tommy danced the same way he did everything else, with sharp, barely contained movements and energy radiating off his being, he found there was something particularly enthralling about watching him move. They danced near but not quite together, brushing and bumping against each other whenever they were jostled by the crush of bodies surrounding them. Noh-Varr’s fingers ached to reach out and touch, but he was learning more and more about Earth customs and knew that with the amount of indication Tommy had (or rather hadn’t) given it was probably best not to just yet and so he contented himself with watching Tommy grin and dance, getting to know the way his body reacted to the music.

 

*

 

The next afternoon he’d woken up to find Tommy just about glued to the window in his bedroom overlooking Earth. they’d crashed there when it had finally gotten into the wee hours of the morning, but they’d both been more than a little lit and exhausted, not an easy feat, considering, and Noh-Varr had been a perfect gentleman, he was quite sure.

“Morning.” he greeted, Tommy didn’t turn around.

“We’re in space.” Tommy responded, voice full of awe “You live in space. I’m on a spaceship right now.” Noh-Varr laughed. It wasn’t a particularly unique reaction, but he found it endearing regardless.

“We are in space, yes. I’m guessing this is your first time this far from home?” Tommy laughed.

“You have no idea, I spent a pretty good chunk of my time stuck in a cell not too long ago. Outer-space is, well, a pretty big departure from that, y’know? Just no way to be ready for it, it’s just so...empty.” Noh-Varr bit his cheek, there was none of the bitterness he’d have expected in Tommy’s voice when he mentioned having been incarcerated, it was something he hadn’t known about him until now.

“I understand. I too spend time as a prisoner. To go from the confines of a single cell to the infinity of space is...strange.” He finished. Tommy nodded and finally turned away from the window to look over at Noh-Varr. For a long moment Noh-Varr wondered if this was the moment he should be finally reaching out to touch, but the moment was broken before he could try.

“So!” Tommy exclaimed “How long’s it gonna take to get home from out here? Got any food for the way back?” He asked, already moving out of the room and past Noh-Varr. He sighed and pushed down his disappointment.

“I’m sure we can find something…”

 

*

 

There were certain times in one’s life, Tommy felt, that one was permitted to freak out. Realising you may not be quite as heterosexual as you’d spent the entirety of your life assuming via possible (probable) crush on your almost-ex-girlfriend’s very attractive, very male, alien ex-boyfriend was one of those moments.

 

Tommy wasn’t a guy who particularly minded who anyone loved or fucked or anything of the sort as long as they weren’t hurting anyone while they did it, but it didn’t change the fact that being taken off guard like this about such an essential part of himself wasn’t exactly easy. He’d be the first to admit he hadn’t exactly handled the revelation gracefully, so sue him. There wasn’t much he could do to change about it once it was done, though he wished it could.

 

*

 

They were dancing, which wasn’t unusual for them. Noh-Varr seemed to love music more than even himself, and Tommy found few other ways to get out the energy always pent up inside him that were half as fun, and not just because of the clubs, which were, on their own, not particularly fantastic. They always had a lingering undercurrent of drunkenness and sick but when he went out with Noh-Varr he always managed to get caught up enough in the music and the atmosphere of things to forget about the less pleasant aspects of the night. Tonight was no different.

 

He caught himself watching the lights dancing over Noh-Varr’s pale hair and toned torso and a familiar spark ignited somewhere low in his abdomen. He swallowed hard, he could admit to himself it wasn’t the first time he’d caught himself looking, but it wasn’t unusual, he thought, just to look, right? But somehow this time it felt different, heavier. He let his eyes linger a little longer and when the beat of the crowd picked up they were knocked together. He pulled his eyes up to meet Noh-Varr’s, much closer than they’d been a moment ago. Normally this was the moment they’d laugh and pull back but when Noh-Varr caught his eyes he must’ve seen whatever it was that Tommy himself was feeling and failing to comprehend because instead he ducked in closer. Tommy felt warms hands ghosting down his sides and over his hips before holding firm, thumbs sweeping over the space where his shirt had ridden up to massage the skin there.

 

His eyes darted between Noh-Varr’s eyes and lips and he felt like he was running on pure instinct, everything that was happening felt far too new for proper thought right now. When he didn’t pull away Noh-Varr pulled him gently closer and Tommy felt his heart leap into his throat as a familiar, heavy heat settled over him. Noh-Varr leant in closer still, so they were sharing the same breath, less than an inch separating them, and Tommy ran.

 

Needless to say, there was no point chasing after him.

 

*

 

Tommy had spent a good amount of time just running. Running to outrun the memory of what his felt like to have Noh-Varr’s skin on his, how his had burned like a brand at the touch. Running to outrun the question of how his lips would have tasted, of how Noh-Varr made him feel more relaxed and happy in his own skin than he remembered being in a long, long time. But unfortunately, he found no matter how fast he went he couldn’t outrun his own thoughts.

 

So, eventually, he’d ended up on Billy’s doorstep. Or, rather, doormat. Apartments didn’t really have doorsteps, but that was neither here nor there.

 

He’d thought about going to David first, but it was half-past three in the morning already and he had the feeling he might not make it out alive if he stopped by at this kind of hour again. He’d thought of Kate as well but even though they were pretty good friends now, it still seemed a little weird, given the context of things. Billy had been his last choice, and it wasn’t because he thought he didn’t care, or because he himself didn’t care, but with Billy things were...harder. The whole sort-of-family thing complicated everything. It put more pressure on all of their interactions because it was like they were both feeling obligated to forge this sort of connection and had no idea how to go about doing so.

 

But, nonetheless, here he was. He knew Billy’s parents were supposed to be out of town, so he felt a little bad about interrupting some of the rare time Billy and Teddy got to spend properly alone, but relieved that he wasn’t going to have to worry about trying to sneak in through the window to avoid the whole twin thing because now was really not the time.

 

He knocked rapidly at the door and waited, bouncing on the balls of his feet, for Billy to answer the door. When he did, a minute or two later, mussed from sleep but eyes cautious and wearing only flannel pajama bottoms which looked suspiciously baggy on him, he looked an odd mixture of alarmed and relieved to see Tommy standing outside of his door.

“Tommy?” He questioned, voice rough with sleep still.

“Hey bro, I, er, I need to talk to you. About something.” Tommy said a little sheepishly.

“Is someone hurt?” asked Billy.

“Nope.” Tommy replied.

“Is someone going to be hurt?” Tommy shook his head. “Then can it wait?”

“Welllll, I mean, you are already up, right? And I’m kind of having an emotional crisis, or whatever. So it would really help me out if you stayed up, man. Like, you’d be the best soul-brother ever. I won’t forget it, I swear.” He wheedled. Billy sighed and stepped to the side, gesturing for Tommy to step inside.

“Come on, then.” Tommy grinned and gave him a light smack to the shoulder while he passed.

“Thanks, man! I mean it, best soul-bro of all time. Ever.”

“Yeah, whatever.” Billy replied, closing the door behind Tommy.

 

Once they were both seated in the kitchen Billy with mug of tea and Tommy munching on a box of crackers he’d pulled from one of the cupboards Billy asked him what he’d come to talk about.

 

“Noh-Varr.” Tommy mumbled around the crackers in his mouth. Billy raised a brow.

“Okay, care to elaborate?” Tommy shrugged his shoulders in a ‘don’t-even-know-where-to-start’ gesture and Billy continued. “This isn’t a Kate thing, is it?” Tommy laughed and almost choked on a cracker in the process.

“No.” He managed. “Definitely not a Kate thing.”

“Okay.” Billy continued slowly “So if it involves Noh-Varr, and it’s not a Kate thing, what kind of thing is it.”

“I think-I think we might be dating.” Tommy said, Billy’s eyes went wide and Tommy continued. “Or I mean, something like it sort of. I didn’t really notice actually, it was kind of by accident.” Billy stared at him, disbelieving.

“You think you might be ‘accidentally’ dating Noh-Varr.” Billy said. Tommy shrugged.

“Oops.” Billy dropped his face into his hands and sighed, and Tommy would be more inclined to laugh if not for the fact that Tommy felt pretty much the same right now.

“Okay, so, what made you notice things, then?”

“Well we were dancing and he almost kissed me and I just..”

“You just?” Billy repeated and Tommy sighed hopelessly.

“Came here.”

“You mean you just ran away?!” Billy exclaimed.

“I didn’t know what else to do!” Tommy flailed as he spoke. He was beginning to feel quite bad for the way he’d left things. He couldn’t be sure exactly what Noh-Varr was thinking, but he imagined there weren’t a lot of nice way to take the way he’d run away.

“Obviously.” Billy said flatly, anger and guilt flaring suddenly Tommy stood up.

“Look if you’re not going to help me then I don’t need to sit around and listen to you talk down to me.” He had the feeling he might be speaking too quickly for Billy to understand but the other young man jumped up and grabbed his arm before he could walk out.  
“Wait, shit, Tommy. I’m sorry. Just sit down, okay?” Tommy huffed and nodded, sitting back down when Billy let go of his arm and settled back in his own chair.

 

“Okay well, I think the most important thing you need to figure out is how you feel about him.” Tommy’s cast his eyes downwards, it was something he’d been avoiding the eventuality of confronting. “I mean, you wouldn’t be here freaking out if you weren’t at least a bit attracted to him, you kissed David by accident and you definitely didn’t do this.” he gestured at Tommy’s general person.

“I know, but that’s so hard.” Tommy whined (though he’d deny that it was, in fact, a whine). “I don’t do feelings.” Billy rolled his eyes and let out a small laugh.

“Well clearly you do, whether you like it or not. So you’re just going to have to deal with them.” Tommy didn’t like the sound of that. He buried his face in his hands and groaned.

“I like how he makes me feel.” His voice was muffled but it didn’t matter. He’d prefer that to having to see Billy’s no-doubt shit-eating grin at the admission. “I feel good around him. It’s not like it was with Kate. I don’t feel like I have to change or be better, I just feel good. As myself.” He groans again before looking up at Billy, whose face is just as he knew it would be, and pointing a finger at his face. “You repeat this to no one. On pain of death, I swear Kaplan. I mean it.” Billy grinned and mimed zipping his lips together and throwing away the key.

“My lips are sealed, I swear.” Tommy huffed and after a moment they both broke into tired laughter.

 

They ended up talking well into sunrise, which was definitely something new for Tommy. He left around six, Billy had offered him the spare room but he was still too wired to sleep. He figured searching for Noh-Varr now was a long-shot, he’d be off in his spaceship somewhere, besides it was probably best to give himself a bit of time to process things anyways. He’d go looking for Noh-Varr in the evening.

 

*

 

The one thing people tended to forget about when thinking of Tommy as someone who took everything in stride, brushed off whatever was going on in his life, and seemed not to react in a big was to much at all, was the fact that time passed differently for everyone else than it did for him. What might’ve taken a week for someone else to reach a decision about, took five minutes for Tommy but it wasn’t because Tommy put any less thought or care into it, it was because he just did it all that much quicker.

 

Unfortunately, this meant that most of the time when he’d finished reaching a decision about a situation, the other person involved had barely begun to even think things through, and nothing ever really worked out. He really hoped this wasn’t going to end up being one of those times.

 

*

 

Tommy spotted Noh-Varr up at the familiar DJ station, where he knew he’d be, and did his best to steel his nerves, which had been sparking across his skin since he stepped foot in the club entrance, as he walked up to him.

“Hey!” He shouted over the music once he was next to them.

“Hey.” Noh-Varr shouted back, flat. He didn’t look up but Tommy wasn’t going to give up that easily.

“Can we talk?” Noh-Varr let out a humorless laugh.

“I thought no-one came to clubs to talk?”

“I only came here because I didn’t know where else to find you!” Tommy shouted back. Noh-Varr sighed.

“Give me a minute.” Tommy nodded.

 

Once he’d finished putting together a playlist Noh-Varr led them towards the bar at the back of the club and through a small door marked STAFF ONLY into what appeared to be a storage room. Once they were inside he sat down on one of the old tables near the wall.

 

“Alright, what is it you wish to talk about?” His tone was casual enough, but Tommy wasn’t fooled, he could see the unusual lack of amicability in his eyes and posture. Tommy built his lip for a moment to stop the words from tumbling out too fast with the force of feeling behind them.

“I’m sorry.” He began, Noh-Varr shrugged.

“What for? You have done nothing to apologise for, Tommy.”

“Yes I have.” Tommy countered immediately. “I have and you know it. I’m sorry, I just...freaked out. I panicked, is all, and I’m sorry. I’d change it if I could but I can’t, so. I need to tell you that I’m sorry.” Noh-Varr looked at him for a moment before speaking, his voice was sorry and confused.

“I’m at fault, too. I mistook the nature of our relationship.” Tommy swallowed hard and stepped closer until they weren’t more than a foot apart from each other.

“You didn’t.” Noh-Varr raised a brow, doubtful.

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yes. I mean, you really didn’t you just happened to realise what I was feeling before I did, is all. But, now I’m all caught up and I would really, really like to try again. If that’s still what you want?” Noh-Varr grinned and stood up, bringing them closer together.

“That is definitely still what I want.” Tommy grinned and this time he was the first one to reach out and touch, bringing his hands up to smooth over Noh-Varr’s sides and feeling a familiar heat settle over him but none of the fear or panic that had accompanied it last time. Noh-Varr put his hands on Tommy’s hips again and pulled him forwards so they were pressed against each other and Tommy had to bite his lip against a small moan at the feel of it. Noh-Varr leaned in close but just before closing the distance he pulled back with a playful grin on his face.

“You’re sure you aren’t going to run away again if I kiss you.” Tommy glared and Noh-Varr laughed before finally leaning back in and pressing their lips together.

 

The kiss made Tommy feel like he was on fire and suddenly he was having trouble remembering what made him nervous about all of this in the first place. They were pushing against each other, hands sliding up under shirts and scratching over skin and this was definitely worth all of the waiting, on both of their parts.

 

They were shocked out of their lust-filled haze by a loud knock on the door and someone shouting for Noh-Varr to return to the floor. They leant back against the table, heads buried in each other’s collars.

 

“Um,” Tommy began, a little breathless still and wasn’t that new “Maybe we should, y’know’ take things a little bit slow?” Noh-Varr laughed lightly into Tommy’s neck.

“How ironic of you to say.” Tommy rolled his eyes and cuffed him and Noh-Varr pulled back with a small kiss to his neck. “But if that’s what you want then I agree, as long as you aren’t going to disappear again. Tommy grinned.

“I’m not going anywhere, just try and get me to move, you’ll see.”

[END]

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hoping you enjoyed this! It was a little rushed, but I'm thinking I might add on to it later if anyone might like to see more of it :)


End file.
